FW: Advice for the married, planning to get married, single but not available, single and available, no love life
This is an email which was forwarded to me by my friend, Margaux last Feb. 23, 2004. It's almost a year since this was sent to me. I don't know why I still keep it in my inbox. Probably, I'm still contemplating on what status I'm in from the given choices above.
Again, my take on this article is in italics.
PARTNERS AND MARRIAGE
By Eduardo Jose E. Calasanz
I have never met a man who didn't want to be loved. But I have seldom met a man who didn't fear marriage. Something about the closure seems constricting, not enabling. Marriage seems easier to understand for what it cuts out of our lives than for what it makes possible within our lives.
When I was younger this fear immobilized me. I did not want to make a mistake. I saw my friends get married for reasons of social acceptability, or sexual fever, or just because they thought it was the logical thing to do. Then I watched, as they and their partners became embittered and petty in their dealings with each other. I looked at older couples and saw, at best, mutual toleration of each other. I imagined a lifetime of loveless nights and bickering and could not imagine subjecting myself or someone else to such a fate.
When I was younger, too,(Naks. Ginaya ko pa yung simula.) I used to think that all people experience married life. For me, everyone is raised by their parents. Everyone would go to school. Everyone would have to get a job. Then, be married. But none of these are a hundred percent true. Not all are raised by their parents. Not all all could go to school. Not all would get a job. Not all would be married.
And yet, on rare occasions, I would see old couples who somehow seemed to glow in each other's presence. They seemed really in love, not just dependent upon each other and tolerant of each other's foibles. It was an astounding sight, and it seemed impossible. How, I asked myself, can they have survived so many years of sameness, so much irritation at the other's habits? What keeps love alive in them, when most of us seem unable to even stay together, much less love each other?
There are couples who do stand out when it comes to relationships. It's nice to look at them. Then, maybe after I would ask myself what's wrong with me or with the one that I love that makes our relationship sour. It's not so healthy to compare ones status. But at least, I get to see what seems to be ideal and real. There might be some instances where I would tell myself that I want this kind of love or I want to show you this kind of love because this is what I have experienced or this is what I haven't yet. Or maybe I would look at a couple close to me and see them as role models. Or maybe not. Of course, I still want to love the way I want to love.
The central secret seems to be in choosing well. There is something to the claim of fundamental compatibility. Good people can create a bad relationship, even though they both dearly want the relationship to succeed. It is important to find someone with whom you can create a good relationship from the outset. Unfortunately, it is hard to see clearly in the early stages.
What if the one that I would choose doesn't know me yet? (Eh, di magpakilala ka. Torpedo na naman po.) Or the one that I would choose would not choose me? Compatibility is one thing. But I think it's more of the "give-and-take" relationship that couples have. I know each must have patience, trust, love, concern, everything towards the other. And the other is also expected to share, not on the same level of his/her loved one, the best he/she could.
Sexual hunger draws you to each other and colors the way you see yourselves together. It blinds you to the thousands of little things by which relationships eventually survive or fail. You need to find a way to see beyond this initial overwhelming sexual fascination. Some people choose to involve themselves sexually and ride out the most heated period of sexual attraction in order to see what is on the other side.
This can work, but it can also leave a trail of wounded hearts. Others deny the sexual side altogether in an attempt to get to know each other apart from their sexuality. But they cannot see clearly, because the presence of unfulfilled sexual desire looms so large that it keeps them from having any normal perception of what life would be like together.
Sex is not the basic requirement in a romantic relationship. Ok. I'm not a rock. I'm still warm. But sex before sharing a romantic relationship is not a guaranteed love for both parties. Sometimes, a one night stand may lead to a good and lasting relationship. Most of the time, the act is just for pleasure.We're all here to discover new things about ourselves, about this world, about this life. I would not argue if sexual encounters would be on the top of the list for some. It's a matter of choice. Some learn after the experience. Some get addicted. Some get devastated. I don't have to be hooked just to know that i would be hooked in the future.The body only follows what the owner of that body's mind tells.
The truly lucky people are the ones who manage to become long-time friends before they realize they are attracted to each other. They get to know each other's laughs, passions, sadness, and fears. They see each other at their worst and at their best. They share time together before they get swept into the entangling intimacy of their sexuality.
Parang pinapatamaan ako ng talatang 'to, a. Hmp! Oo na. Guilty ko dito. Pero sakin na lang 'yun. Di ko na i-e-elaborate. Next paragraph, please. (Makatakas lang, e 'no? Hehe)
This is the ideal, but not often possible. If you fall under the spell of your sexual attraction immediately, you need to look beyond it for other keys to compatibility. One of these is laughter. Laughter tells you how much you will enjoy each other's company over the long term.
If your laughter together is good and healthy, and not at the expense of others, then you have a healthy relationship to the world. Laughter is the child of surprise. If you can make each other laugh, you can always surprise each other. And if you can always surprise each other, you can always keep the world around you new.
A picture of a couple laughing together is one of the sexiest in my eyes.Their glances at each other. Their smiles. their movements. All beyond words.
Laughter makes eveything lighter. It turns life brighter.
Beware of a relationship in which there is no laughter. Even the most intimate relationships based only on seriousness have a tendency to turn sour. Over time, sharing a common serious viewpoint on the world tends to turn you against those who do not share the same viewpoint, and your relationship can become based on being critical together.
After laughter, look for a partner who deals with the world in a way you respect. When two people first get together, they tend to see their relationship as existing only in the space between the two of them. They find each other endlessly fascinating, and the overwhelming power of the emotions they are sharing obscures the outside world. As the relationship ages and grows, the outside world becomes important again. If your partner treats people or circumstances in a way you can't accept, you will inevitably come to grief. Look at the way she cares for others and deals with the daily affairs of life. If that makes you love her more, your love will grow. If it does not, be careful. If you do not respect the way you each deal with the world around you, eventually the two of you will not respect each other.
Look also at how your partner confronts the mysteries of life. We live on the cusp of poetry and practicality, and the real life of the heart resides in the poetic. If one of you is deeply affected by the mystery of the unseen in life and relationships, while the other is drawn only to the literal and the practical, you must take care that the distance doesn't become an unbridgeable gap that leaves you each feeling isolated and misunderstood.
"We live on the cusp of poetry and practicality, and the real life of the heart resides in the poetic." Aba. Gusto ko 'to, a. Siguro yung lalim ng kahulugan ng buhay ang nagsisilbing akda sa pang-araw-araw. It's the profound meaning of it. (parang in-Ingles ko lang yung una kong sentence, a.)
There are many other keys, but you must find them by yourself. We all have unchangeable parts of our hearts that we will not betray and private commitments to a vision of life that we will not deny. If you fall in love with someone who cannot nourish those inviolable parts of you, or if you cannot nourish them in her, you will find yourselves growing further apart until you live in separate worlds where you share the business of life, but never touch each other where the heart lives and dreams. From there it is only a small leap to the cataloging of petty hurts and daily failures that leaves so many couples bitter and unsatisfied with their mates.
Could it be the one who is destined to fill the missing part of the heart is still out there waiting? Or the one that is married to him/her is not the exact half of the missing piece? Or the heart is not in love at all period? Hmm, maybe.Just a maybe.
So choose carefully and well. If you do, you will have chosen a partner with whom you can grow, and then the real miracle of marriage can take place in your hearts. I pick my words carefully when I speak of a miracle. But I think it is not too strong a word. There is a miracle in marriage. It is called transformation. Transformation is one of the most common events of nature. The seed becomes the flower. The cocoon becomes the butterfly. Winter becomes spring and love becomes a child. We never question these, because we see them around us every day. To us they are not miracles, though if we did not know them they would be impossible to believe.
Transformation? I found this interesting ad in one of the Asian magazines. It showed a scene just after the marriage. You know when it's the time to take pictures with the relatives. In front of the bride and groom, there's the ring bearer with his lips kissing the cheeks of the flower girl. The girl sticked out her tongue and looked a bit pissed. And the ad reads, "It's the same everywhere. Little girls hate little boys. Then, they get married."
Marriage is a transformation we choose to make. Our love is planted like a seed, and in time it begins to flower. We cannot know the flower that will blossom, but we can be sure that a bloom will come.
If you have chosen carefully and wisely, the bloom will be good. If you have chosen poorly or for the wrong reason, the bloom will be flawed. We are quite willing to accept the reality of negative transformation in a marriage. It was negative transformation that always had me terrified of the bitter marriages that I feared when I was younger. It never occurred to me to question the dark miracle that transformed love into harshness and bitterness. Yet I was unable to accept the possibility that the first heat of love could be transformed into something positive that was actually deeper and more meaningful than the heat of fresh passion. All I could believe in was the power of this passion and the fear that when it cooled I would be left with something lesser and bitter.
I have to agree. Love does not have all the positive. It could also bring the negative in a person. I could associate it with hate. (e.g. I hate the ones who hurt the one I love. Something like that.) I'm going to bash myself with that statement. Because when in love, everything seems to be right.Everything is beautiful.
But there is positive transformation as well. Like negative transformation, it results from a slow accretion of little things. But instead of death by a thousand blows, it is growth by a thousand touches of love. Two histories intermingle. Two separate beings, two separate presence, two separate consciousnesses come together and share a view of life that passes before them. They remain separate, but they also become one. There is an expansion of awareness, not a closure and a constriction, as I had once feared. This is not to say that there is not tension and there are not traps. Tension and traps are part of every choice of life, from celibate to monogamous to having multiple lovers. Each choice contains within it the lingering doubt that the road not taken somehow more fruitful and exciting, and each becomes dulled to the richness that it alone contains.
But only marriage allows life to deepen and expand and be leavened by the knowledge that two have chosen, against all odds, to become one. Those who live together without marriage can know the pleasure of shared company, but there is a specific gravity in the marriage commitment that deepens that experience into something richer and more complex.
I think it's living your life together as a married couple. Spending each day with each other. Seeing each grow in every aspect in life.Overcoming each day through good or bad. Knowing that you have another life to take good care of. These are some things that would bring you closer to each other...that would make you love one another deeper.
So do not fear marriage, just as you should not rush into it for the wrong reasons. It is an act of faith and it contains within it the power of transformation. If you believe in your heart that you have found someone with whom you are able to grow, if you have sufficient faith that you can resist the endless attraction of the road not taken and the partner not chosen, if you have the strength of heart to embrace the cycles and seasons that your love will experience, then you may be ready to seek the miracle that marriage offers. If not, then wait. The easy grace of a marriage well made is worth your patience. When the time comes, a thousand flowers will bloom...endlessly.
I'm not afraid to get married. Excited na nga ako, e. Joke. It's life changing kasi kaya madami din ang kinakabahan, di naman takot. Kaya ayun, ingat din syempre. Nasa huli ang pagsisisi. Parang ang negative, a.
Pansin ko lang, a. Ang ending ata ng artikulong 'to, e patungkol din sa pagpapakasal. Di mo naman kami inuudyok, 'no? Ha Eduardo Calasanz? Haha. *peace*
O, s'ya. Humayo tayo't magpakarami. Ay, sh*t! Kasal muna, a.
******************
Eduardo Calasanz was a student at the Ateneo Manila University, Philippines, where he had Father Ferriols as professor. Father Ferriols, at that time, was the Philosophy department head. Currently he still teaches Philosophy for graduating college students in Ateneo.
Father Ferriols has been very popular for his mind opening and enriching classes but was also notorious for the grades he gives. Still people took his classes for the learning and deep insight they take home with them every day (if only they could do something about the grades...)
Anyway, come grade giving time, (Ateneo has letter grading systems, the highest being an A, lowest at D, with F for flunk), Fr Ferriols had this long discussion with the registrar people because he wanted to give Calasanz an A+. Either that or he doesn't teach at all...Calasanz got his A+. Read the paper below to find out why.
posted by Arn 
at 1:12 PM
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